Global Warming by Mark Maslin

By Mike Holderness

We seem to be knee-deep in self-improvement books. Picking at random from the Oxford University Press “Very Short Introduction” series, Global Warming by Mark Maslin (£6.99) bodes well for those who want to get to grips with a complex subject from a pocket-size guide. It is scarcely very short – it crams in 40,000 words. The graphs lack accessible captions and explanations. But Maslin, reader at the environmental change department at University College London, deals with the uncertainties in climate change prediction clearly, largely by answering the “sceptical” challenges. He covers the political complexities of measures to mitigate climate change and introduces the debate over what can be done to ameliorate those effects that will occur come what may.

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